Kitchen Shelf Progress

Happy Wednesday! I worked some more on my kitchen shelf quilt. I had to piece together enough background fabric for the space under the mugs. I have used up every little scrap I had of this Kona Ash. I could have ordered more and waited but sometimes I say to myself..."Hello, this is what quilting is...use what you have...make it work". It's easier to listen to myself when I can't run 10 minutes up the road to a local quilt shop like I used to be able to do. I think I'm going to make the shelf a little slimmer. Maybe shave off a 1/2 inch. It's bit thick. I didn't look to see what the pattern in the book suggested. That would have been smart, huh? I followed the pattern "loosely" because I included blocks that aren't from the book. So never really looked at the actual measurement for the strips and background pieces. I have to add a thin background strip that I pieced together also to each side. Then I have to decide how to quilt it. I hope to have it finished this weekend but we are having friends visit. I think there will be some camping and fishing happening so we'll see how much sewing I can do from now until then.

ETA ::  The mixer is from a pattern I made and there is a tutorial for it here. The teapot is from Piece by Number and the pattern for that is here. The rest of the patterns are from the book Cups and Saucers by Maiike Bakker. I bought mine from Amazon. It's a really great book for paper piecing and cute kitchen quilts / placemats / etc...

Fun Sewing and a Free Bird

This weekend I started paper piecing these blocks to make a kitchen shelf quilt. The mixer is my pattern ~ free here, the teapot is a PDF from piece by number, and the rest are from Maaike Bakker's Cups and Saucers book. I forgot how much I love paper piecing, especially with yummy fabric!

I made this little quilt last week. I like to call it Free Bird, in celebration of Independence Day (coming up next month). After making it I thought it still needed a little something, but it's simplicity has grown on me and I rather like it this way.

Hope you are having some sewing fun!
xo Erin

Hope Valley Twister Finished

YES!!! I finished my quilt and do I ever love it. I decided to quilt 1/4 inch on each side of the diagonal seams in one direction only. Very minimal, for me, but I like it. I didn't have enough Hope Valley fabric left to bind it with so I used some Flea Market Fancy grey eyelet/sprouts. I love it! Did I already say that?  I don't usually wash wall hangings but figured I'd give it a go. The quilt isn't perfectly squared, it's a bit wobbly. I really wasn't as gentle with side background triangles as I should have been.

I'm going to hang it in my kitchen for now.  Just not sure which direction I like best. Stripey block in the top left or grey? What do you think?

WIP Wednesday ~ 6/5/2013 :: Hope Valley Twister Top, Cutting Mats and a Winner

I got my Hope Valley Twister blocks put together! I went with making a wall hanging. I think I'll revisit the pattern and make a bigger quilt sometime. I love the look of this block. I started putting the whole blocks together using a y-seam and quickly decided, since there were so few blocks, to take them apart (in half) and sew them together in rows. Much better :)

I feel like my WIP list is manageable now. I have 3 flimsies. I have my on-going hexies and Grandmother's Flower Garden. So comparing my huge list from last year. I've either finished, changed or used most of those WIPs. I think I'm in good shape and can maybe even start a new quilt!

In other exciting news, I got a new rotary cutting mat yesterday. Okay, maybe that's only exciting for a quilter. I really needed one. My old one was in sad shape. Michaels had a 50% off coupon so I used it for my mat. Let me tell ya how nice it was to trim up my Twister top on the new one...it was nice.

And last but not least the winner of Lori Holt's Bake Sale Rolie Polie from Fat Quarter Shop is Tracy! Congratulations Tracy and thank you Fat Quarter Shop!!

 

Fat Quarter Shop Giveaway::Bake Sale by Lori Holt

Don't you just love Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet!? She has such great style. She seems like so much fun and super sweet. She also hosts awesome quilt alongs on her blog. In my opinion she can do no wrong as far as fabric design goes. Her fabric line Bake Sale is no exception. I LOVE this line, like, a lot. It makes me so happy to look at these beautiful colors. Lori always knows how to add that sweet retro feel to her designs. I have one little 2.5 inch square of the cherries on pink left from her Sew Cherry line and I'm hoarding it. So I've learned my lesson and I am ordering enough Bake Sale to last me for several projects. Including this crazy, cute pattern.

Pre-cuts are going fast. Fat Quarter Shop is generously giving away a 3.5 inch Rolie Polie to one of you lucky people! Just leave a comment on this post by midnight Tuesday June 4th to enter. Good Luck!

Maggie Rabbit, Soup and Other Things

Only 36,000 Feet..that's how far away I am from high speed internet. That's what the phone company told me the other day when I called inquiring about a new package they are offering. They're working their way toward our house. Progress. I guess flickr has made some changes, I can't get it to load yet. I'll be trying again later. But today Bloglovin decided to load for me. It's nice to see what everyone is up to. I missed Blogger's Quilt Festival, that's a bummer. I've seen some of the quilts entered and they are gorgeous.

 I did get some sewing time and knitting too. I made a Maggie Rabbit from Alicia Paulson's pattern for one of my girls. The instructions were so clear and it was really enjoyable to put together. I decided to make Maggie an apron, because you know, a bunny has to have an apron.

I'm not much of a knitter (really) but the little capelet was simple enough for me. I did buy the hoodie sweater pattern too. My oldest girl is an awesome knitter and crocheter so she's gonna make that for Maggie. That's all the sewing I've done lately.

But I have been cooking. We've had warm weather for the most part but there was a brief cool spell and I seized the moment and made soup. Creamy potato and kale soup. So, so yummy. It's my favorite. I could eat bowls and bowls of it. I'm sorta glad soup season is over for that very reason. It's also so much better the next day but there is rarely a time when we have much leftover for the next day.There's really no "recipe" for it. Just throw your carrots, celery, onion in a pot with some butter and olive oil saute, add garlic. Add peeled cut potatoes, salt, pepper, chicken bouillon, water. wash kale thoroughly, cut or rip into pieces. Cook forever...or about 2 hours. There is never enough kale in this soup in my opinion. I use 3 bunches. Add heavy cream. Enjoy!

Outside, we are still working on our garden. I can't tell you how happy these asparagus plants make me. I hope they do well once in the ground. The chickens and ducks are growing like crazy. They are really entertaining and we pull up a chair near the coop and just watch them. a lot. When the baby naps my little shadow follows me around and picks all the flowers I take pictures of. She's really good at it!

Chicken & Duck Love

 

I hope all you mamas out there had a lovely Mother's Day! Mine was wonderful. My husband built our chicken coop this weekend and then took me to pick up my chickens. We found this nice couple that has a really cool homestead a couple of counties over from ours. The only chickens the lady has are Americanas and those are the only ones I wanted. They are the kind that lay tinted eggs in blue, green, pink and sometimes yellows. I'm hoping for blue! My husband got 4 ducks. They are adorable. Three of them are about a week old and one of them is about 3 weeks old and it is living with the chickens right now. The man that we bought the chickens from gave us some quail eggs for eating. They are really pretty eggs and are very small. 
My daughter's rose bush is blooming. It's beautiful. We have blueberries on our blueberry bush. My husband cut back our Lemon Verbena plant. I've had it for about 6 years and it was getting very thin and spindly. Now there is a lot of new growth coming on. Have you ever smelled Lemon Verbena? It's such a great smell. My Hens and Chicks that my mother potted for me before we moved are coming back around.  I'm really excited that my Echinacea sprouted. When we moved I had to leave so many perennials. A really well established patch of Echinacea and my three Clematis plants that were 8 years old, lush and beautiful. So I'm spending most of my free time working on getting more perennials started. Our garden is growing with much more to put in still. That's what I've been up to. Enjoying all this beauty that surrounds me.
 Sorry I have no sewing to show you right now, but I did cut pieces for some Honey Bee blocks. I'll be squeezing in some sewing time here soon. We are going to be having family & friends visiting throughout May and June so I'm really excited about that. Hope you all are well and getting some time to sew or do whatever it is that makes you happy :)
xo Erin